Ideals sent Oppenheimer into research purgatory

10:30 PM,
Aug. 13, 2013

Dr. Frank Oppenheimer 'at home' with visitors to his museum, The Exploratorium, in San Francisco.

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Experiences can sour us, or they can enrich the perspective we bring to life.

In her biography of Frank Friedman Oppenheimer, journalist K.C. Cole relates the story of their first meeting, a "sightseeing" trip around Oppenheimer's museum, the Exploratorium, in San Francisco. The introduction, she says, reflected his approach:

"Sightseeing," he said, "is the basis for all discovery. Marco Polo and Charles Darwin were both sightseers. Individual sights combine to form patterns, which constitute a simple form of understanding." ...